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Refrigerant Report lists new Honeywell and Daikin refrigerants

GERMANY: Compressor manufacturer Bitzer’s latest Refrigerant Report 21, published this week, includes interesting new alternatives.

Traditionally published biennially to coincide with the Chillventa exhibition (and IKK before that), Bitzer’s latest Refrigerant Report 21 follows its predecessors in providing an independent and unbiased view of the current situation on both commercially available and development refrigerants.  

In reality, as far as the report is concerned, not much has changed since the last edition in October 2018. There are a handful of new gases listed, but, more significantly, a number of development refrigerants have fallen out of the report.

Amongst the new refrigerants is Honeywell’s non-flammable (A1) R134a alternative blend R471A. This low pressure refrigerant blends the HFOs R1234ze(E) and R1336mzz(E) (another new refrigerant) with the HFC R227ea and has a GWP of just 148. 

The addition of R1336mzz(E) gives R471A a GWP which is 50% lower than Honeywell’s other low GWP R134a alternative R515B. However, while R515B was criticised for its 20% lower volumetric refrigerating capacity than R134a, the capacity of R471A is said to be even lower.

Interestingly, Bitzer’s latest Refrigerant Report also includes Daikin’s lower GWP R404A replacement R468A. This A2L is said to be better than R404A in both medium temperature and low temperature conditions, yet has a GWP of just 146. It blends the now common components R32 with R1234yf, but also adds the new HFO 1132a (1,1-difluoroethylene). 

In line with the launch of its latest Refrigerant Report, Bitzer is set to launch an online interactive version.

The Refrigerant Report 21 can be downloaded here.

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